Chronic stress in caregivers of dementia patients is associated with reduced lymphocyte sensitivity to glucocorticoids

Caring for the chronically ill is associated with chronic distress. In view of the adverse effects of distress on cellular immune function, such distr ess may have implications for health. Indeed, it has been proposed that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a potential psychobiological mediator of these effects. In this study, we observed that elderly caregive rs experienced greater distress and increased salivary cortisol than non-ca regivers. In addition, caregivers had blunted mitogen-induced lymphocyte pr oliferation, lower mitogen-induced IL-2 production, and reduced lymphocyte sensitivity to glucocorticoids. These results indicate that chronic distres s is associated with impaired cell-mediated immunity which is, in turn, ass ociated with elevated basal steroid levels and altered steroid immunoregula tion at the level of the lymphocyte. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.